Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, Richard (d.1606)
REYNOLDS or RAINOLDE, RICHARD (d. 1606), divine and chronicler, of an Essex family, was admitted sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, 10 Nov. 1546, and scholar on the Lady Margaret foundation, 11 Nov. 1547. He afterwards moved to Trinity College, and commenced M.A. in 1553. He seems to have studied medicine, and on 14 March 1567 received permission to proceed M.D.; but instead of being admitted he went with testimonial letters from the university to Russia. On his return he took holy orders, and was presented by the queen to the rectory of Stapleford-Abbots, Essex, 7 Aug. 1568. Subsequently, on 24 May 1569, he became, in addition, rector of Lambourne in the same county, and practised physic.
In 1571 he was examined by the College of Physicians and declared to be ignorant and unlearned. He voluntarily confessed that he had practised physic for two years, and the college ordered his imprisonment until he paid a fine of 20l.
From 2 May 1578 till 1584 Reynolds increased his preferments by holding the vicarage of West Thurrock, Essex. A summons to appear before Bishop Aylmer in St. Paul's Cathedral, 25 Aug. 1579, to answer some charge of irregularity, was delivered to him there; but he assaulted the process-server, and was committed to the Marshalsea prison. He petitioned the privy council for pardon later in the same year.
He held the other two Essex livings until his death, which took place shortly before 20 Dec. 1606.
He was author of: 1. ‘A Booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike, because all the Foundacion of Rhetorike, because all other Partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon,’ &c., imprinted by Jhon Kingston, 4to, 1563, dedicated to Lord Robert Dudley. This was long popular (cf. Fulwood, Enemie of Idleness, 1593, p. 19). 2. ‘A Chronicle of all the Noble Emperors of the Romaines, &c., set forthe by Richard Reynoldes, Doctor in Physicke, Anno 1571;’ besides a work in manuscript, ‘De statu nobilium virorum et principum,’ with preface dedicated to the Duke of Norfolk, preserved in the Stillingfleet MSS. (Warton, Hist. of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 249).
Tanner wrongly identifies the author of the ‘Foundacion of Rhetorike’ with Robert Rainolde or Reinold, LL.D., who became prebendary of Winchester on 25 Nov. 1558, and died in 1595 (Bibl. Brit. p. 615; Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 42).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 444; Lemon's Cat. of State Papers, 1579, pp. 631, 641; Newcourt's Repert. Eccles. ii. 360, 555, 592; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 616; Carter's Cambridge, p. 325; Goodall's Coll. of Physicians, p. 315; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, pp. 836, 860, 963.]